


Blindsided Date

by lalakate



Category: Downton Abbey
Genre: Date gone wrong, F/M, Modern AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-23
Updated: 2018-02-23
Packaged: 2019-03-22 19:56:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13771410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lalakate/pseuds/lalakate
Summary: An unexpected encounter steers Mary and Matthew's first date in the wrong direction. Short modern AU.





	Blindsided Date

He's late.

This shouldn't make her nervous, shouldn't bother her at all, but she's a wreck inside, and she knows it. It is their first date, after all, and it means far more to her than it should. The man she has secretly loved for most of her adult life, the man she tried to push away when they first met, the man she nearly lost to another woman, she will finally be with him tonight, will finally be given the opportunity to make up for lost time, will finally be able to tell him how she really feels.

What is keeping Matthew? She takes another sip of her wine.

There is no text, at least there hadn't been when she checked thirty seconds ago, and he is always prompt. She fights down worry, reminding herself that his job is demanding, that traffic is bad, that he is only ten minutes late, and she cannot allow herself to panic over nothing.

"Mary?"

A voice from behind her hits her squarely in the gut, and she swallows audibly before pasting on a smile.

"Kemal," she acknowledges, purposely looking disinterested. "It's been a long time."

"Too long," he purrs, taking her hand without her permission. "Are you expecting someone?"

"Yes," she returns hastily. "I have a date."

"A date?" he questions, arching his brows. "Just who is the lucky man?"

He sits down in the seat across from her, and she stares at him hard.

"That's none of your business," she states firmly. "And that's also not your chair."

He chuckles and stretches back, making her resist the impulse to kick him under the table. But she spots Matthew—just walking through the door—and she tilts her head so he can see her, smiling in unmistakable eagerness.

Then another mouth is pressed against hers, lips far too demanding, arms much too strong, and she pushes against him with all that she has.

One backs up and smirks while another stares at her in hurt bewilderment.

"Oh God, no," she breathes as Matthew turns and retreats back the way he just entered, leaving her standing alone and shell-shocked while her past and her present walk away without a word.

  
Her feet begin running before she can talk herself out of it, and she brushes past confused patrons as she tears out the door.

The restaurant is on the top floor of the hotel, and she prays she can catch him at the elevators, panting for breath as she rounds the corner. The doors are just opening, he just stepping inside as she sprints the final distance, crying out his name.

"Matthew!"

Shock and fury stare her down as he deliberately pushes a button, but she bursts into the elevator before the doors close them in. Her breath is heavy, her legs like jello, but she has caught him, she is with him, even if he would rather entertain a shark than her company at the moment.

"One boyfriend not enough for you?" he asks, staring stubbornly at the blinking numbers.

"Don't be an idiot, Matthew," she insists, grasping his arm. "I haven't been with Kemal in a long time."

"I know what I saw, Mary, and what I saw was you passionately kissing your ex-lover."

An ex she wishes she could erase from her memory.

"No, what you saw was my ex-lover kissing me," she argues defensively. "I told him I had a date with someone else, and he did it out of spite."

He looks at her for the first time, making her heart catch in her throat. Just then the lights blink on and off as the elevator bumps and jostles to a halt.

"What just happened?" she whispers, feeling his hand crawl protectively around her waist.

"It looks like the power went out," he observes. "And we seem to be stuck in between floors."

 

* * *

 

She remembers sitting huddled with him in the elevator, how emergency lights flickered on, how they kicked off their shoes and spoke candidly, how misunderstanding dissolved into light kisses until they were finally jolted into motion and set free.

She remembers their decision to go to his place, remembers making sandwiches and drinking wine, recalls the taste of his mother's cheesecake as he fed it to her with darkened eyes, and how they wondered just how the entire bottle had been emptied so quickly.

They had opened another. And that's when haze overtakes clarity.

There had been open-mouthed kisses and touches that burned, murmured words of love as exploration moved under her shirt and into his waistband. Sensations had been overpowering, and she seems to recall his mouth being everywhere, his hands making her frantic, his movement making her crash more than once.

She wonders if she had truly been as loud as she recalls.

An arm pulls her closer, gentle lips tug at her ear, and she turns to see the right man gazing back at her with a sleepy look of contentment.

"That was one hell of a first date, you know," she murmurs, feeling his chuckle run from her ribs to her toes.

"How about a second one tonight?" he grins, not giving her a chance to answer as he occupies her mouth yet again.


End file.
